Rise of a Ninja was one of the better anime style games I've ever played. The Broken Bond takes everything good about Rise of a Ninja and adds a little bit more. Tag team battling, online matches, Sasuke is a playable character, the already good combat mechanics have been greatly improved and more. Hell, you can even train in the Dojo. If you liked Rise of a Ninja you'll love Broken Bonds. If you loved Rise of a Ninja this will blow you away. If you haven't played Rise of a Ninja, it's ok...just get Broken Bonds. You won't regret it a bit.

I knew I had to get this sequel to the first Naruto game and have been amazed at how fun, entertaining, and stunning the game is. Like the first Naruto you start with minimal jutsus and have to progress through the game to build up your jutsu library and their power which I enjoy, also there is a a lot of free-roaming in this game almost three times the first. You not only get to explore the Leaf village but a few towns as well. The controls for the game are just as the first one was which I appreciate since you don't have to try and learn new ways to fight or use your jutsus. Also what I really like as well is that for the audio you can hear the English voice cast or the Japanese voice cast from the show, unlike the first one which you had to download the Japanese voice cast from online. The animation is also superb you'll not get the series animation cut scenes like the first one but the games cgi animation instead which is still incredible. I haven't finished the game yet so I can't really tell how much you'll get to play Sasuke like advertised, the only time so far I've played Sasuke is the level when Naruto is attacked by Itachi and Kisame in the hotel while Naruto and Pervy Sage are looking for Tsunade. The animation and cgi effects are again great and I like how with some missions you go in groups of three allowing you to take control of such characters like Neji, Choji, Kiba, and Shikamaru. The extras you can play in the game storymode are spectacular and I'm having great fun with those, also don't forget if you have Xbox Live you'll get a few nice Naruto trinkets for your console. So if you're like me and loved the first game I say get the second you will be greatly happy with this sequel. I know one other thing I truly hope Ubisoft is in the process of making the third one because I will definitely be getting that one as well....



I like to update a little of this review that I forgot to mention about. A friend of mine was wondering would you be able to play against
other players online, the answer is of course yes you have one on one or you can do tournaments online. I just tried playing a few people online
a few days ago and sad to say I reeeaaallly need to practice my fighting styles more since I seem to get beat about 75% of the time..

I bought both of Naruto:Broken Bond and Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm. Naruto Ninja Storm has alot of hype about it but, falls extremely short of the bar. Both games are fun and Ninja Storm definetly has unseen before manga quality graphics but it is essentially a generic fighting game with some action elements. Broken Bond is a very high quality action game with almost no noticeable loading times compared to Ninja Storm. It takes everything that was good in Naruto: Rise of the Ninja and improves upon it. There are many selectable Leaf ninjas in Ninja Storm however none of these can be used in the "adventure" sections of the game. While you are completely able to switch characters in Broken Bond.
Another great feature Broken Bond adds is the ability to easily switch difficulty modes. This allows younger players or more experienced players to enjoy the game the way they want.
Both games allow for english and original japanese voices. However, Ninja Storm maybe only has 15% of the actual game with voices whereas even the non-important townsfolk all have full voicing in Broken Bond.
Ninja Storm is basically a fighting game with mini games added in. You never even leave town during the action part of the game. One would think this would make Ninja Storm having an amazing town but it falls short of Broken Bond as well. (It is rather ... bland)
In short if you want the best Naruto action game to date get Broken Bond, and if you only have a Playstation 3 and no Xbox 360, Ninja Storm is a decent fighting game with good graphics and some mini-games. (beware the many loading times)

Given how totally awesome Rise of a Ninja was, I was eagerly anticipating this game. There are some changes in this here sequel tho'...and I gotta say, not all of them are good. However like it's predecessor, for Naruto fans it's still a big slice of ninja heaven.

Honestly this one is not as well thought out as the last one was. While Rise of Ninja was literally the "Best Way to Make a Game Out of the First 80 episodes of Naruto"... there are some things about Broken Bond that I could have lived without. This still falls into the category of a "Must Own for Any Self-Respecting Naruto Fan," but it's not as flawless as the pervious offering.

But there is some new stuff that's good. For instance you are given the opportunity of using more characters for the main quest instead of just Naruto. Which makes sense given the story, and makes things more interesting in both the quest and fighting gameplay. The fighting controls also seem to feel a bit less stiff. Also, they straight up give you the option of playing the game with the Japanese voice cast, which apparently for some people higher up on the Otaku Nerd food chain than myself is an absolute necessity. The basic mechanics of utilizing Jutsu to progress through the game, etc are still the same (which is good).

My main beef with this game is this:

In Rise of a Ninja each mission was different and was planned to help advance the story. With Broken Bond each mission is just a fetch quest with some fighting. And it's crazy repetitive. And after a while it gets kind of annoying. Like to the point where the word "insipid" isn't too far off. The context of earning the respect of the Hidden Leaf villagers helped to answer the question of "Why Am I Doing This Again?" in Rise of a Ninja. You're going to be asking yourself that question a lot more in Broken Bond...and most of the time your just not going to get an answer.

Additionally, they broke from using the actual series animation in some of the cut scenes. Some folks might like that better. I didn't. While the graphics engine makes for a great visual representation of the series animation - I wasn't feeling it cut scene wise. That's just me.

That aside, this is still a great game. All of the goodness from the 60 or so episodes from the second part of the series is in there. The epic battles are still awesome, graphics are still great, and when the game isn't making you backtrack for some inane fetch quest - it's fun-as-all-git-out.

While I recommended buying an Xbox 360 just to play Rise of the Ninja, or playing it even if you aren't a Naruto fan - I wouldn't make the same suggestions with this game. If you own an Xbox 360 and are a Naruto fan, then yes, you should totally own this.

All and all this is still a great Naruto game.